Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter in the Bitterroot Wilderness

by Pete Fromm

Le garde commença à parler de bois à brûler. Je hochais la tête sans arrêt, comme si j’avais abattu des forêts entières avant de le rencontrer.
— Il te faudra sans doute sept cordes de bois, m’expliqua-t-il. Fais attention à ça. Tu dois t’en constituer toute une réserve avant que la neige n’immobilise ton camion.
Je ne voulais pas poser cette question, mais comme cela semblait important, je me lançai :
— Heu... C’est quoi, une corde de bois ?

Ainsi débute le long hiver que Pete Fromm s’apprête à vivre seul au cœur des montagnes Rocheuses, et dont il nous livre ici un témoignage drôle et sincère, véritable hymne aux grands espaces sauvages.

Indian Creek est un captivant récit d’aventures et d’apprentissage, un Walden des temps modernes. Ce classique contemporain a établi Pete Fromm comme une des grandes voix de l’Ouest américain.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Memoir, Adventure, Outdoors, Travel, Biography

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Pete Fromm is a five time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Literary Award for his novels IF NOT FOR THIS, AS COOL AS I AM and HOW ALL THIS STARTED, a story collection, DRY RAIN, and the memoir, INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES. The film of AS COOL AS I AM, starring Claire Danes, James Marsden, and Sarah Bolger was released in 2013. He is the author of four other short story collections and has published over two hundred stories in magazines. He is on the faculty of Oregon’s Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA Program, and lives in Montana with his family.

http://www.petefromm.com

Reviews

[Repix Pix · Rating 1 out of 5]

La falta de sensibilidad y empatía hacia los animales me ha provocado una enorme tristeza. Para qué presumir de amar la naturaleza si al final lo único que provocas a tu paso es sufrimiento y muerte.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a young Missoula Montana college kid Pete Fromm was tired of school and took a job in the Idaho wilderness during the winter months to babysit 2 1/2 million salmon eggs that had been distributed into the Indian Creek. Living in a tent with a dog, Boone, he stayed from October to May. When he started his adventure he was so green he did not know what a cord of wood was - the 10 cords he had to cut and stack prior to the first snow fall - to keep him warm throughout the winter weather. He had to learn to fend for himself, hunting and fishing, curing meat, baking on a wood burning stove, hiking miles to the Park Ranger stations to make a phone call, and how to overcome his loneliness. He worried about what was happening "back home", then during a 3 day visit home he was more than ready to get back to his tent in the wilderness.

It was easy to find comfort in Fromm's easy manner. I found that I could actually feel his anxiety, his loneliness, or the pride he took in his accomplishments. The writing was good, the story was better. Even the followup of learning that only 20 salmon returned to Indian Creek left a lasting impression of this book.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very lowbrow read. From reading the Amazon blurb and the epilogue, I naively thought this story would have more to do with the salmon/eggs that the author was hired by the Idaho Fish and Game Department to watch for 7 months. This is more a coming of age story, and a lousy one at that.

This review from Amazon perfectly sums up how I feel: “This book started out with some humor and potential, but ended up becoming an increasing celebration of drunken hunters and killing animals. The graphic description of steel-jaw trapping a raccoon and STOMPING it to death leaves me sickened to this day. The deeply insensitive and callous nature of his "good-old-boys" hunting buddies left me disgusted….This book may appeal to the immature, callous men who are still trying to prove their ‘manhood’ with a gun, but for those looking about a book that appreciates and understands nature, this one isn't it.”

What a waste of time.

[Jd Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the books that changed my self perception and my place in the world. That's how the story spoke to me, but not everyone I've referred it to came away with that impression. So much of the story is man surviving nature, but like Fromm (the author) I saw the struggle of man owning his place in the natural world, and finding peace within it and himself.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los libros con temática nature writing me fascinando. Es la opción más relajante que conozco. Este libro es el único por ahora que no me ha parecido tan de esa temática, quizás porque tenía alguna aventura, porque desde luego la ambientación es genial.

Nuestro chico decide desconectar de todo y a pesar de arrepentirse luego, toma el trabajo de irse a la montaña durante 6 meses de pleno invierno en una cabaña de lona, para cuidar de las crías del salmón. Junto con una perrita que le ragalan.

Allí solitario, sin saber absolutamente nada de supervivencia, aprende a no morir soportando temperaturas de hasta menos 40º. Alguna que otra escapada hará en busca de su padre y hermano que se pierden, para cazar, para irse de fiesta, etcétera.

[Charlotte L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très beau récit dont il est difficile de sortir. Hormis les récits de chasse parfois pénibles, cette histoire est une sublime ode à la nature et à la solitude, écrite simplement et avec humour. Certains passages sont très immersifs, il me fallait quelques secondes pour bien me rappeler où j'étais ! Parfait si vous avez besoin d'évasion, mais gare au retour à la réalité !

[Adolfina García · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un invierno a solas en la naturaleza salvaje y tiene más vida social que yo.

[Javier Casado · Rating 3 out of 5]

En 1977, un universitario de 19 años descubre por casualidad un anuncio del servicio forestal de los Estados Unidos en el que se busca a alguien dispuesto a pasar el invierno en solitario en las Montañas Rocosas, cuidando de una camada de salmones. Serán siete meses en una tienda de campaña a más de 60 km de la carretera más cercana, aislado por la nieve durante casi todo ese tiempo, sin más que la visita esporádica de algún cazador o algún guardabosques a lomos de sus motonieves.

Fromm es un chico de ciudad, no sabe nada de la naturaleza salvaje, no sabe nada de supervivencia, ni siquiera sabe qué debe llevarse para sobrevivir (o simplemente para comer) durante esos siete meses en aislamiento en medio de la montaña nevada. Pero sabe que quiere hacerlo. Este libro es el relato novelado de esos siete meses viviendo como los pioneros de la conquista del Oeste.

¿Y qué tal el libro, preguntaréis? Pues entretenido, no está mal. Personalmente, me ha gustado, pero es que debo confesar que me encanta la montaña, me encanta la naturaleza salvaje, y por tanto me encanta leer este tipo de relatos. Pero la verdad es que su nivel literario es plano, y que si bien entretiene, tampoco pasa nada especialmente interesante: el texto es realista, y si bien hay diversos problemas, inconvenientes, anécdotas… tampoco es que se pueda hablar de una gran aventura que te mantenga atado a sus páginas mordiéndote las uñas. Si visteis la película (también basada en hechos reales) “Hacia rutas salvajes”, pues podéis esperar algo más o menos similar, solo que aquí el protagonista acaba bien.

Recomendable para pasar un buen rato si os atrae la temática, poco más.

[Renee Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES details the seven months Pete Fromm spent in a tent as a young man in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness guarding salmon eggs. There is much to love in this book, and several times I laughed out loud, as I thoroughly related to Pete’s fascination with the mountain-man mystique. In describing himself as a nineteen year old about to embark on his winter-long endeavor, he says:

“At the last instant I remembered to buy a percolator and a few pots and pans, things I’d never owned or used. And finally I added a hundred pounds of potatoes, saying I’d dig a food cache to keep them from freezing. I didn’t really have any idea how to make such a thing, but the word “cache” was always creeping up in the mountain man books. It had a certain sound to it.”

I remember years ago reading a paperback based on the movie “Jeremiah Johnson,” and thinking warm biscuits slathered in bear grease must be the best thing going. I even fantasized about homesteading in Alaska, going so far as buying a laundry basket and a spatula and other items I’d need for my new life in the wilds. I too was 19, and had never held an ax or caught a fish or picked a berry from a vine. But life in Alaska sounded divine.

The thing about Pete’s book is that it highlights how completely insane my plan was, and how much I missed by never having tried.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 para un libro que se ha leído fácil, que me ha entretenido y mantenido enganchada.
Es cierto que las partes de caza y en las que habla de cómo preparar a los animales me costaban, pero las fui superando.
El narrador es honesto, peca de inocente, sonador y poco precavido y al final la naturaleza le da una lección.
Un libro que no me marcará pero que me reafirma en muchas de mis ideas sobre la caza y el impacto del hombre en el medio.
Recomendable para amantes de este tipo de lecturas

[Linda Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this memoir a college kid becomes a mountain man, surviving a winter of living alone in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, working as a salmon caretaker for what sounded to me like the Department of Fish and Game. Since the author graduated from college with a degree in Wildlife Biology in 1981, I'm guessing the events he wrote about in this memoir took place back in the 1970's.

Let's get this clear right away. PETA wouldn't like this memoir, and if you think animals should not be killed for food, you probably won't like it either. Even though I was a vegetarian for almost 50 years (until my hair started falling out) I know there are a lot of people who believe hunting is a better way to get meat rather than to rely on factory farming, which is often said to be cruel to animals when they are still alive. At least the animals killed in this memoir had happy wild lives until the moment the lost the "kill or be killed" challenge all these animals live with. I'm sure if you've ever lost multiple cats to mountain lion attacks, as I have, you're likely to be less sympathetic toward cougars.

Aside from the hunting/trapping issues this book brings up, the memoir impressed me positively. I love reading memoirs about unusual and amazing things people do. I loved this story about a very young and inexperienced college freshman taking on a job that required living all winter, for seven months, in a tent in the mountains just to make sure the nearby creek didn't freeze over, to keep tiny microscopic salmon alive until springtime. This young man had no idea what he was getting himself into but relished the idea of becoming a mountain man. I loved reading about the changes he went through during the seven months. I thought it was a fantastic story about an experience most of us will never have.

The best part of the book, for me, was that his friends bought him a puppy before he left for the hills. It was a female dog he named Boone. Great dog. It was so important for him to have a companion.

Cleanliness factor: very good, but one f-word uttered by a friend, and of course, the violence toward animals, for food and pelts.

[Léa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, wow, wow 😯 Indian Creek fait partie de ces romans cultes que tout le monde semble adorer. Dans ma whishlist depuis des années, j’attendais l’hiver et une bonne occasion pour le lire. Une semaine dans les Alpes m’a permis de partir 6 mois dans le Montana, à Indian Creek.
L’auteur partage son expérience de gardien d’œufs de saumon avec nous, le positif comme le négatif, ses rêves, ses désillusions. C’est simple, c’est beau, l’émerveillement pointe derrière chaque page.
Ps : attention les scènes de chasse sont dures et peuvent choquer. Mon cœur d’amie des animaux a plus d’une fois été meurtri par certains passages.

[Randal White · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing book. A tale (and seemingly, a tall one), of a young, immature, naïve boy who decides college is too difficult, and on a whim, takes a position with Idaho Fish and Game. His job is to spend a winter alone in the wilderness, protecting a bed of salmon eggs. Never mind that the author has absolutely no experience in anything other than swimming and heavy drinking. He has no clue of how to survive in the wild, other than having read a few “old mountain man” books. Never cut wood, never camped in the cold, never even cooked before. Despite being entrusted by Fish and Game, he manages to break almost every game law in the book with his trusty homemade black powder rifle, including poaching a moose, grouse, squirrels, raccoons, etc. He single-handedly kills a bobcat with a stick, and chases after a wounded bear, armed with only a hatchet. A more foolhardy person would be difficult to find. And, to top it all off, at the end of his “adventure”, he abandons, without a second glance, his dog, the only true friend he had to see him through the winter.
It is said that God watches over and protects fools. Even He must have had his hands full with this character.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great. A book group pick I wasn’t feeling invested in from the title but as soon as I started I was hooked. Fun, light hearted, and great nature scenes that almost, ALMOST made me want to spend a winter outside… but not quite.

[Heather Hyndman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this a lot and handed it to Matthew.

[Erich Tallmadge · Rating 5 out of 5]

One day in my American Lit. I was posed with a dilemma. I had to choose my semester novel. I knew one thing and one thing only;I needed to choose something that interested my in order to hold my attention. Being from Northwest Montana I love hunting, fishing, hiking etc.,so immediately when I read the back of Pete Fromm's adventurous story it was as if Indian Creek Chronicles was destined for me.

Indian Creek Chronicles captures the mind of any wilderness loving person, young or old. From Pete Fromm's point of view, he retells his winter of isolation living on Indian Creek in Idaho. He is sent out by the Idaho Fish and Game to ensure the safe hatch of millions of salmon eggs. Living in a canvas tent, Fromm faces the icy grips of hunger and cold, but comes out victorious when he successfully hunts down and kills countless animals to supplement his winter diet. Through his battles with nature Fromm discovers his true self, and discovers what life is about. When spring comes Fromm is victorious, even though he entered the wilderness with little knowledge and meager rations, he survives and emerges a new person with a new perspective on life.

While reading the book the reader discovers many things that can apply to any ones life. Also, nature is not for the faint hearted. Fromm discovers this when he nearly slides of a cliff, but at the last second catches himself in the snow, saving himself from certain death. Fromm also discovers loneliness and how depressing it can be. Finally, Fromm learns that friendship is a strong bond that everyone needs. He discovers this with him and his dog Boone, who was his main company the entire winter. Also Fromm's friend Rader visits him countless times, raising Fromm's spirits, but also making him homesick more than anything.

All in all, this was a fantastic book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about the great outdoors, and adventure. Also, I would recommend this book to anyone who has read Into the Wild, or Walden. This honest tale of an inexperienced, under rationed college student, surviving Idaho's brutal, relentless winter captured me from the beginning. The story's fast pace kept me from setting the book down until it was finished. Fromm's adventure was exhilarating.

[Lisa Kearns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a young man who dreamed of being a "mountain man" all his life. At age 20 he is offered a job as the winter babysitter of some salmon eggs in a remote stream in Idaho. He jumps at the chance to live his dream, without really understanding much about what is required of someone living so remotely.

With naive young dreams in tow, he arrives at the tent where he will spend the next 7 months. He tells of how he learned to cut wood and use snowshoes, learned to feel comfortable alone in the wilderness, dealt with boredom and loneliness, was violently sick with food poisoning without anyone to help, had to learn to cook and preserve food, and how he learned to hunt. He tells how it feels to kill an animal, and the sadness he felt when a beautiful creature dies to feed him. I loved how he honored the animals he killed by treasuring their skins.

Through the book you see him maturing and becoming more capable and respectful of nature. You also see him change from feeling inferior to the weekend yahoos in hunting camps, to seeing those same men as the shallow and careless fools they are. None of those hunters ever admired the worn teeth of a dead lynx, imagining the life it must have lived and feeling honored to end it's pain and suffering.

I loved every bit of the book up until the last chapter. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it yet, but the last chapter was rushed and abrupt, and had an unsatisfactory ending that left me feeling like he had a publishing deadline to meet. I also didn't like the way he handled his dog's future.

But, the one-paragragh epilogue of the book explains that he has gone on to a career as a Fish and Game employee and that the period covered in this book shaped the rest of his life. Without that last little blurb (which I almost overlooked), the book would have been a letdown. Overall, it's an interesting, short book about growing up and learning to be comfortable in our skins, and definitely one to read if you are a fan of outdoor living or just dream of living off the land.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another "young man goes into the wilderness" story. For a change, nothing really dire happens to this young man. Pete Fromm was a college student when he was offered the opportunity to spend the winter in a tent in Idaho guarding salmon eggs for the National Park Service. With a puppy named Boone and a truck full of supplies, and armed with the Foxfire manuals and Brad Angier's books on survival, he was delivered to his campsite before the first snow with an ax and instructions on how much wood to chop in order to make it through the winter.

He wasn't completely isolated; hunters and trappers were also in residence, although not all through the winter. And, with effort, he could get out of the wilderness if he tried, even when the truck was buried in snow. His mail was delivered occasionally, by park rangers on snowmobiles. But even with all the company, he had to learn to live a very different life from the one he had known, to keep himself warm and fed, to care for his dog, and to keep from going crazy during the long winter.

"I walked outside and looked at the wood again, wondering what there was to do now. I strolled around the meadow. I hadn't really thought this out. There was no more wood to cut, and I didn't have anything else to do. Agreeing to come in here, I'd had some sketchy idea of freedom, of having to answer to no one, of being able to do exactly and only what I wanted. Now it seemed that I'd overlooked the simple fact that although I could do anything I wanted, at any time, there really wasn't anything to do. It was a feeling as panicky as having that log crush the air from my lungs. What if claustrophobia pressed in that hard? What if I just went nuts in here from lack of anything to do?"

Pete Fromm's tales of his adventures are entertaining and easy reading. He came through his winter relatively unscathed, and went on to become a writer.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my type of book. When I saw it was about a guy surviving in the wilderness I was interested, but was expecting some horrific scenes of life or death situations. But this book is a true story, and although he has some great stories to tell, they were not too horrific or too unbelievable.

I especially liked it because it goes through his transition from city life to isolation and how at first it was difficult, and then he began to embrace it. Funny enough it reminded me of the transition from city life to being a stay at home mom! Just as he was disappointed more than he could handle when he expected a visitor and they didn't show, I used to get the same feelings (and sometimes still do!) when Josh is supposed to be home early and ends up coming home late. When all your time is at your own disposal, you really have to think about your priorities and what your long-term goals are and keep a long-term perspective. I appreciated his struggle through isolation and loved it when he overcame it, because I feel like I'm on that same type of journey, and learning to love it has been really good for me!

[Lindseyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had, surprisingly, never heard of this book or the author until this was chosen for a UM alumni book discussion this spring. There is a refreshing level of honesty and substance and craft here that I often find to be missing in more recent contemporary writing (read: post-world-wide-web). Pete Fromm has such a natural sense of story and narrative balance that it makes you nostalgic... not only for “simpler times” when people lived closer to nature as he did during his time in the wilderness, but also “simpler times” when one could reflect and write in a different way (pre-internet).

Beyond the fact that I really enjoyed the story and the quality of the writing, the book stirred up a lot of nostalgia for the geographical landscape that defined my 20s (UM/Missoula and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness) and that was very moving for me. Maybe it’s just a college thing in general but I couldn’t help but feel some parallels between the narrator and myself at UM stumbling into incredible “on a whim” decisions and “dumb luck” opportunities that would be challenging but ultimately rewarding and life-changing.

[Alexander Páez · Rating 4 out of 5]

En realidad es un 3/5, pero le doy una más por ser un maldito friki de este tipo de historias. Indian Creek es un relato sencillo, directo y muy sincero sobre la experiencia de Fromm viviendo siete meses en soledad en Indian Creek, una zona boscosa, donde su única tarea era vigilar unas huevas de salmón. Allí su "yo" urbanita se deconstruye por completo. Desde descubrir que la carne proviene de animales vivos a los que tiene que matar con sus propias manos, hasta darse cuenta de que hay gente de todo tipo. La historia comienza con cierto pánico a la soledad y el aislamiento y termina con una absoluta fascinación por la naturaleza salvaje. Lo dicho, para leer en dos tardes. Deja un poso muy chulo y dan ganas de coger la mochila y salir al monte. Adoro esta colección de Errata Naturae.

[Aude - Sempiternelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique roman, qui m’a envoûté des les premières pages. Un réel coup de coeur, malgré certaines longueurs et des scènes de chasse assez cruelles (et dures à lire pour moi, surtout le passage sur le raton-laveur). Une véritable ode à la nature, à la vie sauvage et à la solitude.

[Reggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No deja de ser una mera recopilación de anécdotas, sin mayor reflexión acerca de la experiencia vivida por el autor. Puede que lo que más me interese sea precisamente lo que viene después de que el libro acabe, el regreso a la "civilización" después de siete meses de frío, aislamiento y soledad.

[lauriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un superbe récit de voyage, porté par la plume délicieuse de Pete Fromm. Beaucoup de fraicheur, d’auto-dérision et de paysage enneigé. Une vraie vie sauvage, avec ses galères et ses découvertes merveilleuses. Bref, ça donne envie de tout plaquer et d’aller vivre quelques semaines à Indian Creek 🧸

[Hiroto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only three stars? What happened here? Well, it was me having too high expectations. Somehow I thought this book was going to be funny, or if not, at least fun. It honestly wasn't.

I thought the story was going to be engaging, but I couldn't find myself more detached from the narrator, it felt really immature and somewhat... cold (which the humor of that isn't lost on me).
Pete Fromm recalled how he spent his winter working as a fish and game employee, alone during the hardest time of the year, having to hunt for himself and walk everyday as of to no get bored. Well, I *was* bored. It just wasn't compelling enough.
The part I actually enjoyed was the last chunk of the book, where he talks about Spring and how it transform the whole paysage and how it also affects him mentally. That was quite well written.

The rest? Blah, Bland and Boring. Stories of hunts and solitude and more hunts and always hunts.

In the end, three stars is a high rating.

[Pascale Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le genre de livre que tu ne veux plus arrêter de lire, mais que tu ne veux pas terminer non plus tellement c’est bon! Une immersion complète dans les montagnes et vallées de l’Idaho, à la frontière du Montana. L’automne, l’hiver et le printemps s’égrènent au fil des pages. Peter Fromm y décrit ses aventures, mais surtout les paysages et la vie animale avec tellement de talent que nous y sommes avec lui. Je suis vraiment une amatrice de « nature writing ».

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am conflicted regarding the authors approach and choice of subject matter. I am not a hunter by choice and yet I don’t view the actual effort to survive without meat as realistic for the author. He has a great gift with the written word and his questionable depiction of hunting does not impact his ability to write. I would prefer content more focused on nature’s beauty and non hunting vignettes, but for that I am choosing to read his novel about a brother and sister raised in West Texas. I hope his career as a writer is successful and he continues to grow in maturity and writing skill.

[Patri&Cia · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verdad es que todos, absolutamente todos los libros de la colección Libros salvajes de la editorial Errata natura me estan encantando. Este no es una excepción.

[Maryse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tellement bon!

[Adèle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un beau récit autobiographique de survie en pleine nature, immersif, plein de détails plus vrais que nature. J'ai voyagé jusqu'à Indian Creek et j'en remercie l'auteur !